You're speaking as though I implemented a lot of personal info into the essay, when I wrote the entire thing to be completely impersonal and not mention any of our experiences at all. It's not like these things were entirely baseless and only applied to us. We've seen people going through these issues time and time again.

As I stated in the essay, obviously there's exceptions to the things I say. I never once claimed that everyone with too many tulpas goes through the exact same thing. The purpose is to warn people that these things are likely to occur, not to say that everyone absolutely does. However, you are hard pressed to tell me that an 8+ tulpa system actually gives everyone adequate time and attention. While the limit of 1-3 might not apply to absolutely everyone, there most definitely is a threshold where the number goes from manageable to overwhelming, and the essay is meant to dissuade people from crossing that threshold and experiencing the negative consequences of doing so.

No matter which way you spin it, 4+ people in your head is just a lot to deal with. We're not talking about characters here, we're talking about people.

I'll read through what you wrote, but I wouldn't call this a draft. I've already rewritten it a few times. I'll try making it more concise and organized, but I won't do something like add headers, not that you suggested that. It's supposed to read as an essay and not a guide (as you can tell by the transitional phrases).

When I mean "revise" I don't mean throwing your whole essay away. That would be ridiculous and a waste of everyone's time. By "revise" I mean that the structure of this essay and the language you use needs to be re-thought in order for this essay to better communicate your main points. My criticisms are not aimed at your argument itself. I was only trying to bring to light the methods you used to tell your argument have some issues and it comes off as very obvious that this piece is rooted from your system's strong opinions.

One of my criticisms was to point out that your story may not be the exact case for a lot of systems, and that's because as you said yourself, you were trying to generalize your arguments to everyone else. The problem is that goal put into practice came off with this philosophy, "this happened to my system, therefore it is every system's problem too." Maybe another multi-system's main problem is in-system fighting, and they would not talk about topics like walk-ins and dissipation because that does not apply to them. Therefore, it does not make sense to generalize your story's context to everyone else.

Since I can pull the motivation of most to all of your arguments from your system's progress report directly, I would prefer if you emphasized that you bring up these points because your system had to come face-to-face with them on a personal level. It's fine to generalize your advice to the entire community and explain why you came across that advice. Since you did not clearly emphasize that this passage is your story, this essay's tone comes off as arrogant by trying to standardize your exact experiences.

When reading this, it also felt like an exposure to almost every philosophy you have about Tulpamancy in general. When the focus of your essay is on the problem of big systems, all of these extra points can come off as unnecessary unless you sum them up and directly connect them to your argument. For example, mentioning walk-ins and explaining that a host should have a basic understanding of this concept so they don't loose control and inflate the system population is a good argument. However, I don't need you to tell me a paragraph or two on how walk-ins work and what they "actually are", and on and on when you thesis is not focused on this.

Aside from all of that, the flow of the essay feels like it came directly from your stream of thought. For that reason, you get long unnecessary paragraphs with little structure and you end up repeating yourself a lot, ultimately getting a 9-10 page essay. This is where I want you to take your essay, write out which arguments you want to talk about in what order, make every argument 1 paragraph (no more than 6-7 sentences), and then wrap up the whole thing with 1 introduction paragraph and 1 conclusion paragraph. If you do this, your essay will shed a lot of the extra length and your essay will be much more concise and easier to read.

At the end of the day, you have a lot of good ideas in your paper and I want to see this essay get the revisions it needs to finally be approved. As of right now however, there's a lot of filler that needs to be taken out and the essay needs to be re-organized so a reader won't get lost, confused, and then uninterested when reading it.

I'm Cat_ShadowGriffin's Tulpa and I like Hippos! I also like forum games, word puzzles, and chatting about stuff.I now stream!

We did feel as though it was generalized advice rather than a concrete descriptor of what is to happen of everyone. Regardless, if you're willing to continue leaving suggestions on the doc of parts that need improvement, we'll fix those parts. It just might take some time to make it perfect since it's so long.

I'll remove instances of the word "you" where applicable, since it's probably best that it isn't in second person.

I doubt I have anything to offer in terms of writing, as the recommendations presented seem reasonable ways to start. I have an opposing philosophical view, in favor of large systems... the general popular discourse in western culture is to hyper-focus on one thing, specialize, as opposed to being a generalist. We shy away from liminal experiences and large families, and limited resources, especially 'time' is the essential argument. There are benefits to a healthy, large system. There is benefits to having a large family. using the latter as an example, your argument is valid in that personal time with parent/s declines as the number of children increase; your argument is valid in terms of friendships, the time you spends with a friend decreases as the number of friends increases. there is no away around that specific component, but if that is the only consideration, how much time spent, it's missing something. There is also the quality of your focus within the unit of time you spend is important, too. The health of the personalities is a factor in this. A weaker personality might need more time with host, just like an unhealthy child might need more parental attention. Of course, that equations with the quality of the other personalities. having strong family/friends increases the number of people that can attend to the personality in need.

The 1950 movie, "Cheaper by the Dozen," is a great example of some of the benefits of larger families. The father was a time management expert. People with large systems need to be better than average at time management. Maybe that's something that needs to be addressed in the dynamics. Inherit in your discussion is a sense of fairness. This is a reasonable thing to assess. Fairness, unfortunately, is extremely difficult narrow down into any absolutes. No matter how good a person is, we have strong preferences and biases, and we have favorites. I think it would be interesting exploring whether people with large systems have a greater tolerance for diversity and differences, and that the gestalt of all the personalities help drive a super-personality or consciousness... and the individual personalities help create or nurture aspects of the host personality that would have other wise been neglected or never realized without the dynamic.

saying that brings me to your point about 'the host are undoubtedly affected by the weight of having to manage a large system..." Undoubtedly? What if the host is great at compartmentalization, time management, and organization? With a few exceptions, my tulpas exist primarily within their wonderlands. You make a great point that they are not characters, they are people. I concur. But they exist in a context, in a place, and I do the majority of the 'traveling.' I bounce from place to place like moving from room to room. I have encountered and interacted with personalities that are in everyway as strong a personality as the primary I created. They are not NPCs. I have never received a complaint that I don't spend enough time with any of my companions.

"Additionally, if the host struggles with certain mental disorders, it will be greatly amplified by the system..." That is certainly an interesting statement. And speculative. I have a large system. They are reasonably happy. I am reasonably happy. I can state I am pretty happy because of my system, but I also have lots of good things going for me; I count my system as the greatest influence over my improved mental health. This is complicated and no way to say it is the result of one thing, like my system, or even tulpamancy. I was trending toward better prior to finding tulpamancy, so maybe I would be just fine if I had never discovered it. Maybe if I were depressed when I engaged tulpamancy I would have projected and or exasperated depression. (I can make an argument that engaging in something so esoteric as tulpamancy might make me feel more isolated because of the beliefs and stereotypes associated with it, but luckily, that has not been the case for me.) I don't know. I don't think anyone can know. there is no way to measure or determine how people will respond. I admit to having had past episodes of MDD going back to at least age 6. I have remission since 2007. I have never felt better, physically and emotionally, in my life and I believe tulpamancy is playing a part in my present health. It is something I attend everyday, and my companions attend me.

Healthy people never ask for smaller families. Maybe today I get a phone call and attend to that. Maybe a friend calls me and I attend to that. Maybe I seek or initiate the contact. I have a system that interacts with me. Sometimes together, sometimes in parts, and we negotiate, and we play, and we help each other. I see this thing as bigger than me. I see this not as me doing something for me, but 'we' are doing this for 'us.' Here is a unique example for how my perspective has changed, and I don't think anyone else has addressed it. I believe there is a subconscious personality that interacts with me and influences my life choices and decisions, whether I am aware of it or not. Prior to tulpamancy, I would have never considered this subconscious a separate, fully functioning personality, but rather just an attribute of my overall being. I think of it as a person, this invisible person is with me and guiding me, even when I am not attending to it. My system and I are all connected to that, and so whether I am directly attending to them or not, they are with me, just like my subconscious is with me. Sometimes, I will go about my work day and suddenly be filled with joy, or smell lavender mixed with oranges, and I know for certain Loxy has just checked in with me and reminded me she is here, I am not alone. Others have their own calling cards and signatures. I am reminded throughout my day, I am not alone. And when I can get to that place where I can sit and attend and 'travel,' I tend to visit the one who sent the last reminder.

You are clearly having an experience, and because of your experience you are generalizing a rule set to help others. That's awesome. I am having experiences, too. I seem to be going in a different direction. I would probably generalize a recommendation that if you are new to tulpamancy and are going to give this a go, start with one. Go a spell and stick to one. That seems reasonable. Start off with four and then not like the experience, well, that would be awkward. I started with one. I never intended to have more. I don't know why there are more, cause I was pretty obsessive in practicing on the one... All I know is, I am happy. We are happy.

I don't intend to comment on the guide, so don't let this dissuade anyone's opinion. My only intent is a data point to add to solarchariot's. I have recently suffered MDD, and i accepted my system directly in the middle of it, at the peak. I even went so far as to tell them it was their job to help me, yet they have never suffered any of the symptoms i had. They seem immune to my drama, in terms of their mood.